Being Lucky
by TropicalStormEmily
Summary: There are some friends who you just can't separate, no matter what the circumstances are.


This was a present for a friend. Her favorite character is Donna, so you know...I just had to bring her back. This has just been sitting on my computer for a few weeks. Enjoy!

"**I wanna, you're gonna- reunite the Doctor with the fabulous Donna!"**

* * *

><p><strong>Being Lucky<strong>

_She tosses the chunk of TARDIS coral to the Doctor, she knows his intention is to give it to Rose and the other Doctor. He catches it with a smile, but she can see the sadness behind his eyes. It's something more than leaving Rose again. She's only seen him like this once before, and that was the first time he left her, in the snow. He was all alone, without his Rose, and without a friend. It's this lost and resigned look in his eyes that makes her snap off a piece of the coral and stick it in her pocket before giving it to him. It's partial instinct, but Doctor-Donna is half time-lord after all, and her brain works like the Doctor's. Just got to cover all the bases. _

_ Later, when he leaves her at home, without a memory of him, she finds the coral in her pocket. She tosses it out the kitchen window, into the back garden, and forgets about it._

_XXX_

Donna was never much of a gardener. So when she saw the white, deformed tree in her backyard, she disregarded it and thought that it must be some newfangled tree on steroids. She had watched it grow for years and years now, almost ten. It had been growing even before she had gotten married, gotten a stable job, quit her stable job, and had children. Often, it was how she remembered time's passing. She had gotten married almost before she knew it was there, she supposed it had just been a sapling at that time. It had grown, and at the birth of her baby girl it had already been several feet high. She had thought about having another child, but her girl, now about eight years old, had been a handful. Donna wasn't one to put up with shenanigans, but dealing with her kid had tired her out of the idea of having more. One was enough, and her husband quite agreed.

Still, the tree. It didn't actually look like a tree, per say. It looked like more of an amorphous vertical…blob. But what else could it be, growing in her backyard? If she was being completely honest with herself, she had thought it looked sort of…alien. But she didn't entertain the notion for long. Donna reverted back to her steroid-super-fertilizer idea.

Still, it _really _didn't look like a tree. So one day, when Donna was particularly bored of washing dishes, she went outside. She opened her back door with a vengeance, or maybe just with a purpose. Either way, she winced when it swung back shut sharply. Her husband and daughter were out for ice cream, they had just left after dinner, leaving Donna to clean up. She hadn't been happy, but she couldn't help indulging her daughter and that pretty smile.

So she walked out to the tree and stood before it. She felt dwarfed underneath it, as the cream spirals rose above her and out around her. It looked more like something that would grow underwater, rather than in her backyard. She squinted upwards, raising her hand to her brow, as if she could see better that way. Then she put her hands on her hips and stepped back. She walked around the tree. It was just a normal (not normal at all) tree! That was, until she put her hand on it.

As soon as she put her hand on, it _opened_. She could hear it in her mind, and it called to her, though she didn't understand. But if a tree opened in your backyard, what would you do? You'd go inside, of course.

It was bigger on the inside, and fully lit. Donna could hear whirring and crashing and mechanic. So she ran back out, around the tree, and back inside. It sealed up behind her. As soon as she started to pound on it frantically, it opened for her, and she could see her backyard. It recognized her, yielded to her touch. So instead of running out in terror, she stood in the entrance, hyperventilating, stuck between what seemed like two worlds. There was her world, with her house, and her unkempt backyard. Then, there was the tree thing, which was obviously not a tree at all. Trees are not bigger on the inside.

So she wandered to the center of what seemed like an open room, with grids and grids of metal underneath. There was a slender pole of glass in the center, with what looked like a crystal orb suspended in it. The crystal seemed to be filled with molten gold, gold that was seeping out through the crystal, down the glass, throughout the floor. Donna knelt to touch it.

It felt warm, like heated honey, but smoother. She rolled it in her fingers, and it dissolved into her skin. She could see the gold in her veins as it made its way through her arm. She didn't have enough time to panic, if she had even wanted to. It made her somehow calm, and she just looked on in wonder. Her skin began to emanate gold, a soft glow. The gold substance made its way through her arms, her torso, her, legs. It seemed to hit her heart and her mind at the same time. And then, _she remembered_.

It was like her life had been muffled for so long, and suddenly she could feel again. Her breaths were deeper, she could feel the air swirling in her lungs, she was intensely aware of her heartbeat, and of the spinning of the world. She laughed in happiness, louder and louder. Then, a pain exploded in her head. She fell to the ground, and so fell into the gold substance. She writhed on the ground in agony, so many memories swimming inside her head.

Then something curious happened. The pain started to numb, as the golden substance asorbed into her skin. It gave her space inside her mind, more than enough space for all of her memories, and the things she shouldn't be able to know, but somehow did. She laughed, while lying on the floor. _Bigger on the inside_. Yes, she was. Oh yes, she was. And she knew what this was. It was the TARDIS. Well, a TARDIS. There was more than one now. More so, she could _fly_ it! She knew how, it was all inside her brain! Oh, the memories! And _OH, THE DOCTOR!_ She remembered with a jolt. The Doctor. She had to see the Doctor, her best friend. She had to smack him, for leaving her behind. She was oh so angry about what he'd done to her, but that anger was equally rivaled by how much she missed him.

That thought was immediately put into action. She could find him, slap him, hug him, they could talk for hours, and she'd still be home before her husband and daughter walked in the front door. She had a sneaking suspicion that she could land her TARDIS a bit better than the Doctor could handle his. She just felt so in sync with her, like they were connected. And at once, she knew, they were. She has saved Donna. Donna had created her, grown her, but she had saved Donna. She had poured some of herself into Donna, making Donna stronger, strong enough to contain her human and timelord knowledge. So Donna strode to the sender glass pole in the center, and pressed the one red button the floor, with her foot. The console shot straight out of nowhere, out of the middle of the pole. It was…classy. Sleek and metal, Donna laid her hand on it, and walked around, hand trailing over the smooth surface. It was littered with glittering buttons, levers, and switches. _Mine, you are mine. You are mine, and I am yours._ Donna kept smiling.

"Right," she muttered to herself. "Now, to find you…" her smile slipped into a frown of concentration, as she searched her mind for the proper sequence of buttons that would send her spiraling in to space and time.

Blue, red, up, just a notch to the right, program in coordinates…or a thought, that would do it. Her TARDIS would get her where she needed to be. And oh, she came through. Donna knew she would always come through. Her beautiful, beautiful, girl. She felt something of a bond with her, like she did with her own daughter. She couldn't wait to share this with her daughter, with her family. They'd think she was nutters, but she would get the Doctor to help explain. She just had to find him first.

That's why she decided to land her TARDIS in the middle of his. It took impeccable aim, willpower, and lots of faith in her new best friend, her TARDIS. But there was loads of that to go around. So she landed, smoothly. It was remarkable what you could do when you were at peace with your TARDIS. None of that whooshing, or shaking, or crashing nonsense, like that which went on when traveling with the Doctor. She barely hesitated before running to the side of her TARDIS and slamming her hand on the cream colored wall. Her hand almost fell through as the wall dissolved a door for her to exit through.

She was faced with a bewildered man in a bowtie, with the ghost of a "What?" on his lips. It was just like the first time she had appeared in the TARDIS, but this time, she had done it.

"Hey, Spaceman," she said boldly, laughter in each syllable. "Miss me?" With that, she instantly closed the gap between them and flung her arms around him. She felt him shudder a moment, then felt his arms nearly constrict around her. Soon, they were both laughing, and she realized she was crying with happiness. As she pulled away, she noted the tears in his eyes as well.

"Donna Noble, but you…"

"Shouldn't remember! I know! But I do!" She gave a nice throaty laugh, and swung her ginger hair over her shoulder. With a big breath, she shrugged her shoulders. "You think a little setback like that could stop the DoctorDonna?" With this, she gave a sassy hip bob, so characteristic of the animated Donna he knew so long ago, the Doctor couldn't help but burst into laughter again.

"But…I've regenerated! How do you know who I am? My hair's all floppy! And…what do you think of the bowtie?" He stood up tall, and straightened his bowtie, with a cheesy grin.

"Oh, Spaceman, I'll know my best friend anywhere. The bowtie is…well…it's very _you_." She laughed, and hugged him again. He squeezed her tight.

"Oh, Donna, Donna, Donna, Donna. How I've missed you! How have you been? What's life like back on Earth, with Wilfred, and your family and your husband and ooooh, do you have children?" His giddy voice matched his childish expression and gestures, hopping back and forth from one foot to another. He had his Donna back!

"Married, one child, a girl, her name's Devon, I don't work as a temp anymore, found this TARDIS growin' in my backyard, thought it was a tree and now I'm here!" her head bobbed back and forth with an excited expression, akin to when she found him that one night in the Adipose headquarters.

"Donna Noble, with her own TARDIS! I can't believe it! But…I can! Oh you two will make such an extraordinary pair! She saved you! And you created her!" He steepled his fingers and positively shook with excitement. He was much more…gleeful than she remembered, but he was the same Doctor nevertheless.

I won't bore you with the details, but they talked for hours. At one point, she did slap him, and he laughed at her. But as time wore on, Donna missed her daughter, and her husband. They wouldn't be wondering where she was, but she owed it to them to get back. She wouldn't just leave them.

"Well, at least let me take you. For old time's sake," the Doctor said. Of course she obliged. How could she not? But it took everything she had not to correct him and help him fly. It was almost nostalgic to be back in a TARDIS that pitched back and forth. They landed without too many mishaps though, and with just a thought, Donna's TARDIS transported itself right back to her garden where it started, without looking any worse for wear.

They lingered in the garden for a few minutes, and made their way to Donna's back door.

"Don't you want to-?" she gestured back into her house, giving him free invitation inside. He raised up his hands in protest.

"Oh, no, no, I couldn't."

"Alright then, goodbye…" she trailed off, and flew into his arms, for one last hug from her best friend, with tears in her eyes. She retreated, and was about to shut the door, when…

"Donna?"

"Oi, what is it?"

"Will I ever see you again?"

"If I'm lucky."

xxx

_And so began again the travels of Donna Noble. Sometimes it was with the Doctor, sometimes with her family, and sometimes by herself. But they were beautiful, happy travels, with lots of running and beautiful scenery. And no matter what, on every seventh day, the Doctor and Donna Noble meet up, wherever and whenever they are. They meet up on the ridge, where her grandfather first saw them. It's hard to coordinate "every week" as things are kind of spacey-wacey when you have two TARDISes. But they count the days, and somehow always end up in the same place at the same time, only moments after each other. She may have been the most important woman in the universe for a while and long ago, but she was his best friend. For forever._


End file.
